That NEW JG300 unit history: How'd you rate it?

[NickM]

Guys:

I have been hearing good things about that new multi volume unit history of JG300 by Laurent & Goyat; well...The JEWELS of my collection of LW reading material is the JG26 War Diary and the JG26 unit history by Caldwell---the combination of both the personal recollections, the history, context AND the information from the 'other side' makes it an invaluable asset to me---it's my yardstick by which I measure all others---anything that comes close becomes a 'must buy/must read';
SO....in purely subjective terms, how does 'JG300' stack up? I don't mean to denigrate or put down anyone's work...I just want your opinions;

Thanks, ahead of time--and sorry if I ruffle any feathers;

NickM

[Griffon]

Nick, I will keep this answer short as only a few words are needed IMHO.
if you love Caldwell´s stuff, you will die for the JG-300 history!
this is basically the best book on WW2 fighter aviation I have ever come across, it even beats Urbanke´s Greenhearts history, my past favourite.

so if you dont find spending nearly 100 Euros for a single aviation book insane, go and get it!!!

cheers
phil

[Jim P.]

Sounds like neither of you guys have ever seen the work of Mr. Prien and his team....

[Laurent Rizzotti]

I won't compare Lorant's book with Prien's, as I didn't own them, but I can make the comparaison between Lorant and Caldwell.

Lorant is IMOO better because there are far more personnal recollections or reports, and the fate and action of individuals are the main part of the book. While JG 26 book may be compared to a unit war diary with some first-hand accounts and references to the Allied side (with also first-hand accounts), Lorant books have combined the unit war diary with a huge number of personnal recollections and documents.

As for giving the view from the other (Allied) side, Lorant is providing data on Allied losses and claims, but it is difficult to compare with Caldwell IMOO. Lorant will often give more precise data from the Allied side (as location, time, sometimes names of Allied fighter pilots lost) but won't try as much as Caldwell to check who shot down who... Most of the times JG 300 was involved in big battles against 8th Air Force, and in these battles trying to determine who met who is IMOO harder than for tactical missions. I have also to say that I don't agree at 100% with Caldwell's identifications of victims and killers of JG 26 pilots, as do other historians (by the way, Caldwell is an historian and I'm not).

Loss lists in JG 300 book are more complete (in the sense that aircraft losses will be listed even if the pilot was OK, as are ground losses) and include the percentage of damage, and also damaged AC.

[John Manrho]

To give a rating;

Caldwell's JG 26 War Diary: 8 out of 10.
Lorant JG 300 Vol. 1 ( I am waiting for Vol. 2): 9 out of 10.

cheers,

John.

[FalkeEins]

Nick,

..would love to add something to this thread....but I guess I better not go over the top. Suffice it to say that I too reach for Caldwell & Prien when I'm in a mood for a quality unit history ( not forgetting Goss, Vasco, Forsyth, Mombeek etc etc) .. I'm always dipping into these books..
Re JG300. Most positive assessments are based solely on Vol 1 so far ...it received some nice reviews, but Volume II - due some time - is even more exciting! Aside from the superb and very rare late war photos, the book is chock full of gripping personal accounts - the authors got out there and tracked their men down and got their stories and then wrote the history around them (Mombeek has a similar approach). I would humbly suggest that in both these areas and with this approach these works have the edge over Caldwell & Prien..of course as a body of work Prien is simply unsurpassed..(although I agree with JJ re the II./JG 3 book - heavy!)
BTW, the French editions of the JG300 books have sold over 4,000 copies between them so far and featured simultaneously in the Amazon.fr Top 50 ..not bad for a Luftwaffe book costing €70 ....there's more on the books and an interview with M. Lorant via the link if interested..

http://members.aol.com/falkeeins

[Laurent Rizzotti]

By the way my own impression was based on the French version, mainly on the second volume that I read lately (bought it in December IIRC).

[John Manrho]

Neil,

what is so special about the II./JG 3 book compared with the other Prien volumes? Or do you mean IV./Jg 3 which is indeed slightly different?

regards,

John.

[NickM]

Originally Posted by John Manrho

To give a rating;

Caldwell's JG 26 War Diary: 8 out of 10.
Lorant JG 300 Vol. 1 ( I am waiting for Vol. 2): 9 out of 10.

cheers,

John.

Whoa! 9 out of 10? Guys you've sold me! I'll see if I can free up the cash---or barring that try to convince my Local Library to InterLibrary Loan it for me...
As for Prien; I've only read the JG53 3 volume history by him; I like his writing tremendously, up to a point---the quotes & recollections of guys who are flew for the unit makes them seen quite alive & spontaneous: cocky, confident, glory hungry, scared, tired, bored, demoralized--even though many will be KiA's in the not too distant future; another thing he delved into was the fear & the stress that the pilots endured in their day to day lives;
however the one thing the Prien doesn't do too often is touch on who they flew against ---information RE: the opposition they flew against & their losses vs the claims that were made...

NikM

[Nick Beale]

I've only seen a limited sample of Prien's work (e.g. the JG 77 and JG 53 histories) and you cannot fault his research from the German side. My feeling was that he was in an understandable hurry to get the veterans' reminiscences while there was sill time and to get their story into print. That meant filling out the picture with the Allied perspective was less important to what he was then trying to achieve. The amount of his output shames the rest of us who need to stop for meals, sleep etc. but I prefer books that have looked at every angle.

Forsyth's JV 44 I was peripherally involved in, so I'm not impartial but getting a book that size out of a c. 30-plane unit that only lasted four weeks must rate as an achievement.

It's been a long time since I last read it but Manfred Boehme's Jagdgeschwader 7 impressed me at the time, after I'd got through his rather lengthy account of the Me 262's development.

Urbanke's Green Hearts had a lot going for it (and I bought and kept it) but I felt the author was a bit overwhelmed by the scale of the task and hadn't organised the material as well as he might have: his magazine articles had been much sharper. Also there were points where more analysis would have been welcome: how could an entire retrained, rested and well-equipped Gruppe come off so badly against eight Tempests, for instance?

On the other hand, I recently re-read JG 26 War Diary, vol. 2 and for me that remains the one to beat. The quality and quantity of research is all there, the people are real, the detail doesn't swamp the story and it's especially well written.

However the two volumes of Lorant's Bataille dans le Ciel d'Allemagne have been on my shelf since just after Christmas and I hear them calling me ...